Family fun at core of annual apple fair

The increasingly popular annual apple fair near Wakefield is set celebrate the 2017 harvest on Sunday.

Held at Willow Bank Heritage Village on the Wakefield-Kohatu highway, the free fair drew about 500 people when it started four years ago. In 2016, it was estimated three times as many people attended.

One of the organisers, Sylvia Huxtable, said there were plenty of planned activities for the whole family including puppeteers and storytellers, the MSA men’s choir from Ashburton, a ukulele group, Morris dancers and clowning. People would also be able to dress in period costumes and have their photos taken or sample goodies from a range of stalls including toffee apples, sherbet lollipops, crepes, dried apples, hazelnuts, home-made apple vinegar, milk shakes and coffee.

‘‘There’ll be cakes, slices and biscuits from community groups,’’ Huxtable said.

‘‘There’ll also be a hangi this year as a fundraiser for Willow Bank.’’

However, the star attraction would be the apples. Fair-goers could bring their own and have them crushed and pressed into juice or they could buy containers to fill with free juice that would be crushed and pressed on site using ‘‘heavily discounted’’ apples supplied by Hoddy’s Orchard.

Nelson Provincial Museum intended to have a stall featuring historic pictures related to the apple industry.

Huxtable said a call two weeks ago for volunteers to help with the event attracted a good response including the Lions Club of Rich- mond, whose members had offered to manage the parking.

‘‘We really needed people who knew what they were doing so that’s fantastic,’’ Huxtable said.

Organisers would welcome another couple of fit volunteers to help crush and press the apples. ‘‘You have to be pretty fit; it’s hard work.’’

The 2017 fair is scheduled to be held from 11.30am to 3.30pm.